New addition to the kitchen

A couple weekends ago, IKEA finally had the kitchen island we've been coveting. We went out and got it, had it delivered the same day, and put it together by 9 that night. It's large for our space and will require rearranging the living/kitchen area yet again, but we're very glad to have it. I haven't taken a picture of it, but here is a picture of it from the IKEA site.



As you can see, it's mostly stainless. That wooden butcher-block-type part folds up and down as needed. It's counter height and we also got two folding bar stools. We have eaten there as a table several times and like it. Maybe having friends over for something isn't too far away. It will seat six people. We are going to need more stools.

The BIG morning

I think many of you who read my blog are friends and family and have little to nothing to do with the world of children's books. You've put up with my prattle about ALA, awards, authors, and illustrators and some things may have sunk in whether you wanted them to or not. This morning was the big morning for children's books. The 2009 awards were announced! I'm mentioning some of winning books by authors you may have heard me mention before. I've worked with all of them at either Holt or Harcourt, or both. They are some of the nicest people around, all of them. I'm very happy for them. Only one of these books is a Harcourt book but I'm pleased as punch for all of these authors (and all the ones who won but I'm not mentioning in this blog post). For a full list of ALA winners, you can visit ALA's homepage and click on the links for the individual award press releases. The ALA page is a little slow to respond due to the increased traffic.

Kadir Nelson cleaned up for his authored & illustrated book We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. He won the CSK author award, a CSK illustrator honor, and won the Robert F. Sibert Medal for best informational book for children.

Kathi Appelt won her first Newbery honor for The Underneath. I visited her at home in College Station a couple years ago and she gave me a pair of pink Crocs. She was actually working on The Underneath during the time I visited. We are united in Aggieness. She's also been one of the few authors who has worked with me all eight years in publishing as she was published by Holt and Harcourt.

I was also thrilled for Yuyi Morales winning another Belpre award for illustration and an honor for writing of Just in Case. She's one of the most gracious people I've ever met.

M.T. (Tobin) Anderson won a Printz honor for his second Octavian Nothing installment, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom of the Waves. Which I haven't read yet. But will very soon.

And finally, after many acclaimed books, Marla Frazee has been awarded her first Caldecott honor for A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever. This one is especially dear to my heart because it is a Harcourt book and I worked on much of it's promotion before I left Harcourt in June. Marla's editor, Allyn Johnston, shared early versions of this book with us and we watched it develop, grow, and change over the months before publication. It was amazing to watch the early version of the book mature into the charming, honest, and funny final version.

In addition to four out of five books above, I have also read some of the other award winning novels: Savvy (Newbery Honor), The Graveyard Book (Newbery winner), and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (Printz honor).

Also of note is author & illustrator Ashley Bryan winning the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for lifetime achievement. I had a short exchange with Mr. Bryan at a conference when I was still with Holt. Later, I was much astonished when he expressed his gratitude for sending him a book he requested—he sent me a hand written thank you note and autographed copy of his book Beautiful Blackbird. During that same conference, he crashed the Holt cocktail reception, but we didn't mind at all. Sorry Simon & Schuster or whichever publisher party he was supposed to be attending. I haven't worked with Mr. Bryan but I am a fan. You have also never heard anyone give a speech properly until you have heard the orations of Mr. Bryan.

Another year, another group of winners. I am a little sad not to be at Harcourt of the old days to celebrate with Marla, Allyn, Barb, Sarah, Amanda, Kia, Kara, Rachel, and everyone else. We used to love having any excuse to drink champagne in the office.

2009? Present.

I'm here. In the new year. Still not reporting very interesting news. Our tree is still up. It was supposed to come down yesterday, but I was finishing up reading for work and then went to a friend's house in the evening. There was little notice about going to the friend's house, otherwise you betcha I would have planned accordingly and taken the tree down on Saturday. Or have done more reading on Saturday. So the tree is coming down today.

I walked to Brooklyn Heights last night (where my friend lives) and I passed the corpses of many a previously festive and decorated tree. Today is the first day of the city-wide tree recycling program. Trees get picked up at the curb and turned into yummy smelling mulch that will be used in parks throughout the boroughs. I wonder what it would be like to be a curbside tree spotter and collector? I haven't seen any of the trucks collecting trees yet. Our tree is dry as the Sahara but still nice and green. And it still smells nice. I kept some of the lower branches we cut off and put them in our living room windows. I think I'll leave those up a while longer since they look winter-y not Christmas-y. We are also going to leave up some of the white rope lights since they look nice any time of year.

We didn't have a wreath this year. If we did, it might have helped identify our apartment as ours and not the one next door. Two more people have tried getting into our apartment only to find Steve answering the door to tell them they are in the wrong building. Idiots. Most have been pretty late at night and alcohol was clearly involved, but one just a few days ago, was about noon. Sober. He was very embarrassed. The others have been too soused to be embarrassed. Yes, 377 and 375 look identical from the outside, and I presume the stairwell. Yes, the keys work for both. Isn't that genius? Our first outside door has the same key as 375's inside door. And our inside door matches their outside door. Grrr. Cheap. Luckily the actual locks on the individual apartment doors are all different.

We have no idea if other people in our building have had this problem with their 375 counterparts. Another thought: if we have had four people try to get into our apartment, how many people live in #5 at 375? Four? Or has someone been a repeat offender?

In other news . . .

I watched Mama Mia on Saturday. I spared Steve and gladly wished him well as he played computer games in the other room. What a mess of a movie, but fun and rescued by the campy and catchy ABBA music. The costumes were ugly (and I'm not just talking about the disco get ups). The location - the beautiful Greek isles - is barely used, and the signing. Oh help me, the singing. James Bond is not a but can rock a glam disco jumpsuit. I also thought everyone looked sweaty. And not in a good way. Eh. It was a fun movie, but not a good movie. It could have been done a lot better. At least the cast looked like they were having fun the whole time, especially Meryl Streep.

Now I'm supposed to be working but I'm in a bit of a writer's block. Ironic isn't it? I can write on this blog without any problem, but when I try to write a program proposal I'm stymied. Will go back and give it another shot.

David and Allison to visit this weekend. That will mean another trip to Grimaldi's. Yum.